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Jewelry display and organization

So, you have a lot of jewelry that you
a) don’t wear all of and maybe even forgot you had some pieces?
b) have stored away in a place where it gets tangled?
c) want to show off on your body and in your home?

I fit all of the above.

I had multiple jewelry boxes and storage centers for various items. A small tin full of bracelets and a pretty box full of tangled necklaces were on display. I also stored a few jewelry boxes full of sentimental or jewelry from my adolescence when everyone gave me necklaces. (I’m the only niece/only granddaughter on my mom’s side.) A lot of these were sold on consignment, due to no longer fitting my neck or just the fact that I just didn’t love them anymore. A few were real gold or silver and I sold those at a jewelry store. I had a TON tested – it was pretty embarrassing, I had a lot of other metals that the jewelry lady didn’t care about; but she handled it very nicely.

My earring collection was ridiculous. I have 5 piercings in my ears and I love to accessorize with earrings – however, my ears are extremely sensitive. I had a few earring trees over the years, but they weren’t great at holding stud earrings.

I saw a lot of ideas for jewelry organization on Pinterest. But I don’t own an old rake an couldn’t really install a towel rod to hang necklaces. (I wish I had links.) I do not, and did not want, enough jewelry for a GIANT jewelry box, as pretty as those are. (Some good DIY ideas: HERE )

What I did have, and had forgotten about: a GIANT cork bulletin board. It used to hold photos, notes, and postcards which had been attached with tape, so it was a mess!

I thought about paper, but I thought it would be too tacky-looking to have bright pink computer paper stapled onto my jewelry board. So I found some wrapping paper in our wrapping paper bin: shiny gold with stars. Why not? Stapled it on and began hanging necklaces and bracelets. VOILA:

It hangs on the bedroom wall above my dresser. Perfect! Now I never have an excuse to forget to wear that gorgeous necklace that matches my outfit perfectly. Or, you know, whatever. AND I can display my work of art to anyone who comes in our bedroom. (Okay, that’s not many people.)

AS FOR EARRINGS – I did a major overhaul of these, too. I justified keeping many, many pairs for a very long time because “If I just wear them for a few hours, my ears only itch a little.” Not anymore!

Rather than selling these on consignment, I threw them away. Most were small studs. Also, a lot of the metal was peeling off

I still have some that I can wear for a day or a night out and then remove them – if it ever gets to be a shorter amount of time or I don’t love them anymore, they’ll go.

For this I created an earring book. I bought way too much pink felt, cut it into squares, and stitched the “pages” together like a book! The earrings go right through, and are organized in such a way that it’s easy for me to find what I need.

Note the large amount of holiday earrings – a gift one year, and I’ve kept most as I work in an elementary school!

As you can see, the stitching is far from perfect. As you cannot see, the pages aren’t perfectly aligned or even exactly the same size. But it certainly does the job. I keep spare single earrings on the cover because I do have that one hole in my cartilage (a helix piercing.)

This was so helpful that I’ve bought more jewelry items since making this – and wear them – OR I pass up buying jewelry that I don’t think I’ll REALLY wear.

Cork boards can be pretty inexpensive and easy to hang. Felt was easy to find and buy (pretty sure I found that felt at Walmart) and I hand-stitched the edge.